The conversion of CO2 into solar fuels by photocatalysis is a promising way to deal with the energy crisis and the greenhouse effect. The introduction of oxygen vacancy into semiconductor has been proved to be an effective strategy for enhancing CO2 photoreduction performance. Herein, TiO2- x nanostructures have been prepared by a simple solvothermal method and engineered by the reaction time. With the prolonging of reaction time, the oxygen vacancy signal gradually increases while the band gap becomes narrow for the as-synthesized TiO2- x nanostructures. The results show that the TiO2- x-6 h, TiO2- x-24 h, and TiO2- x-48 h samples have the main product of CH4 (more) and CO (less) for CO2 photoreduction. Among the three oxygen vacancy photocatalysts, the TiO2- x-24 h sample shows the highest CH4 generation rate of 41.8 μmol g− 1 h− 1. On the basis of photo/electrochemical measurements, the TiO2- x-24 h sample exhibits efficient electron–hole separation and charge transfer capabilities, thus allows much more electrons to participate in the reaction and finally promotes the photocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction. It further confirms that the optimization of oxygen vacancy concentration could facilitate the photoinduced charge separation and accordingly improve photocatalytic CO2 conversion.

Composites of P25 TiO2 and hexagonal WO3 nanorods are synthesized through ball-milling in order to study photocatalytic properties. Various composites of TiO2/WO3 are prepared by controlling the weight percentages (wt%) of WO3, in the range of 1–30 wt%, and milling time to investigate the effects of the composition ratio on the photocatalytic properties. Scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy are performed to characterize the structure, shape and size of the synthesized composites of TiO2/WO3. Methylene blue is used as a test dye to analyze the photocatalytic properties of the synthesized composite material. The photocatalytic activity shows that the decomposition efficiency of the dye due to the photocatalytic effect is the highest in the TiO2/ WO3 (3 wt%) composite, and the catalytic efficiency decreases sharply when the amount of WO3 is further increased. As the amount of WO3 added increases, dye-removal by adsorption occurs during centrifugation, instead of the decomposition of dyes by photocatalysts. Finally, TiO2/WO3 (3 wt%) composites are synthesized with various milling times. Experimental results show that the milling time has the best catalytic efficiency at 30 min, after which it gradually decreases. There is no significant change after 1 hour.

Carbon Nano Tubes could be either metallic or semi-conducting in nature, depending on their diameter. Its photocatalytic behavior has given an impetus to use it as an anti-microbial agent. More than 95% Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria got killed when exposed to Carbon Nano Tubes for 30 minutes in presence of sunlight. Carbon Nano Tubes are supposed to have smooth surface on to which it accumulates positive charges when exposed to light. The surface that is non illuminated has negative charge. At the cellular level microorganisms produce negative charges on the cell membrane, Therefore damaging effect of multi walled carbon nano tubes (exposed to light) on the microorganisms is possible. In this paper, photo catalytic killing of microbes by multi walled carbon nano tubes is reported. Killing was due to damage in the cell membrane, as seen in SEM micrographs. Moreover biochemical analysis of membrane as well as total cellular proteins by SDS PAGE showed that there was denaturation of membrane proteins as well as total proteins of both the microbes studied. The killed microbes that showed a decrease in number of protein bands (i.e. due to breaking down of proteins) also showed an increase in level of free amino acids in microbes. This further confirmed that proteins got denatured or broken down into shorter units of amino acids. Increased level of free amino acids was recorded in both the microbes treated with multi walled carbon nano tubes and sunlight.

본 연구에서는 광촉매 반응과 막분리 기술을 접목시킨 혼성 고도 정수처리 공정에서 소독 부산물의 전구체로 알려진 자연산 유기물을 효과적으로 제거하고자 하였고 다양한 운전 조건에서 시스템의 성능을 비교 평가하였다. 자연산 유기물은 흡입여과 방식의 분리막과 TiO2 광촉매를 이용하여 광분해하였을 때 광촉매 투입량의 증가에 따라 반응속도가 증가하였지만 과량의 촉매 주입시에는 반응 속도 향상에 오히려 부정적으로 작용하였다. 자연산 유기물을 보다 효과적으로 제거하기 위해 산화철 주입, TiO2 표면처리, 분리막 표면코팅을 시도하여 제거특성 및 운전에 따른 막여과 특성을 평가하였다. 산화철 주입은 초기에 흡착작용으로 인해 제거율 증가를 보였으나 반응이 진행됨에 따라 산화철 입자에 의한 광산란으로 광분해 효율이 오히려 감소되었다. 산화철 입자에 의한 광산란을 제어하고자 TiO2 표면을 광처리와 열처리 방법을 이용해 철을 직접 부착시킨 경우 긍정적인 효과를 얻지 못했다. 그러나 산화철로 막표면을 코팅하여 광산란 효과를 배제시킨 경우에는 향상된 결과를 보였다 막투과 플럭스 15 L/m2-h에서 정밀여과를 수행하였을 때 TiO2나 산화철에 의한 막오염은 거의 일어나지 않았고 안정된 막투과도를 나타내었다.

In the present study, imbedded copper matrix powders have been successfully prepared from the () composite salt solution. The composite powders were formed by drying the solution at 200~40 in the hydrogen atmosphere. Photocatalytic characteristics was evaluated by detecting TOC (total organic carbon) amount with TOC analyzer (model 5000A Shimadzu Co). Phase analysis of composite powders was carried out by XRD, DSC and powder size was measured with TEM. The mean particle size of composite powders was about 100 nm and a few zinc and copper oxide phases was included. The reduction ratio of TOC amount was 60% by the composite powders under the UV irradiation for 8 hours

Enhancing with non-metallic elemental nitrogen(N) is one of several methods that have been proposed to modify the electronic properties of bulk titanium dioxide(TiO2), in order to make TiO2 effective under visible-light irradiation. Accordingly, current study evaluated the feasibility of applying visible-light-induced TiO2 enhanced with N element to cleanse aromatic compounds, focusing on xylene isomers at indoor air quality(IAQ) levels. The N-enhanced TiO2 was prepared by applying two popular processes, and they were coated by applying two well-known methods. For three o-, m-, and p-xylene, the two coating methods exhibited different photocatalytic oxidation(PCO) efficiencies. Similarly, the two N-doping processes showed different PCO efficiencies. For all three stream flow rates(SFRs), the degradation efficiencies were similar between o-xylene and m,p-xylene. The degradation efficiencies of all target compounds increased as the SFR decreased. The degradation efficiencies determined via a PCO system with N-enhanced visible-light induced TiO2 was somewhat lower than that with ultraviolet(UV)-light induced unmodified TiO2, which was reported by previous studies. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that PCO efficiencies increased up to 94% for o-xylene and 97% for the m,p-xylene under lower SFR(0.5 L min-1). Consequently, it is suggested that with appropriate SFR conditions, the visible-light-assisted photocatalytic systems could also become important tools for improving IAQ.

The photodegradation and by-products of the gaseous toluene with TiO2 (P25) and short-wavelength UV (UV254+185nm) radiation were studied. The toluene was decomposed and mineralized efficiently owed to the synergistic effect of photochemical oxidation in the gas phase and photocatalytic oxidation on the TiO2 surface. The toluene by the UV254+185nm photoirradiated TiO2 were mainly mineralized CO2 and CO, but some water-soluble organic intermediates were also formed under severe reaction conditions. The ozone and secondary organic aerosol were produced as undesirable by-products. It was found that wet scrubber was useful as post-treatment to remove water-soluble organic intermediates. Excess ozone could be easily removed by means of a MnO2 ozone-decomposition catalyst. It was also observed that the MnO2 catalyst could decompose organic compounds by using oxygen reactive species formed in process of ozone decomposition.

Removal of NOx on CaO/TiO2 photocatalyst manufactured by the addition of Ca(OH)2 was measured in relation with the amount of Ca(OH)2 and calcination temperature. In case of pure TiO2, the NOx removal decreased greatly with the increase of calcination temperature from 500oC to 700oC, whereas in the photocatalyst added with Ca(OH)2, the removed amount of NOx was high and constant regardless of calcination temperature. Considering NOx removal patterns depending on the amount of Ca(OH)2 added(50, 30, 10wt%), high removal rate showed at the photocatalysts containing less than 30wt% of Ca(OH)2, and it was about 30% higher than that of pure TiO2. From the XRD patterns, it is seen that the addition of Ca(OH)2 contributes to maintaining the anatase structure that is favourable to photocatalysis. It also indicates that the possibility of the formation of calcium titanate(CaTiO3) by reacting with TiO2 above 700oC. Apart from the favourable crystalline structure, the addition of Ca(OH)2 helped increase the alkalinity of photocatalyst surface, thus promoting the photooxidation reaction of NOx.